t desiGn: A randomized controlled trial.t obJectiVe: To investigate the immediate effects on pressure pain thresholds over latent trigger points (TrPs) in the masseter and temporalis muscles and active mouth opening following atlanto-occipital joint thrust manipulation or a soft tissue manual intervention targeted to the suboccipital muscles.t bacKGRound: Previous studies have described hypoalgesic effects of neck manipulative interventions over TrPs in the cervical musculature. There is a lack of studies analyzing these mechanisms over TrPs of muscles innervated by the trigeminal nerve.t MetHods: One hundred twenty-two volunteers, 31 men and 91 women, between the ages of 18 and 30 years, with latent TrPs in the masseter muscle, were randomly divided into 3 groups: a manipulative group who received an atlanto-occipital joint thrust, a soft tissue group who received an inhibition technique over the suboccipital muscles, and a control group who did not receive an intervention. Pressure pain thresholds over latent TrPs in the masseter and temporalis muscles, and active mouth opening were assessed pretreatment and 2 minutes posttreatment by a blinded assessor. Mixed-model analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine the effects of interventions on each outcome, with group as the between-subjects variable and time as the within-subjects variable. The primary analysis was the group-by-time interaction.t Results: The 2-by-3 mixed-model ANOVA revealed a significant group-by-time interaction for changes in pressure pain thresholds over masseter (P.01) and temporalis (P = .003) muscle latent TrPs and also for active mouth opening (P.001) in favor of the manipulative and soft tissue groups. Between-group effect sizes were small. t conclusions: The application of an atlanto-occipital thrust manipulation or soft tissue technique targeted to the suboccipital muscles led to an immediate increase in pressure pain thresholds over latent TrPs in the masseter and temporalis muscles and an increase in maximum active mouth opening. Nevertheless, the effects of both interventions were small and future studies are required to elucidate the clinical relevance of these changes. t leVel oF eVidence: Therapy, level 1b.

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BackgroundCultural and social factors play an important role in the development and persistence of Low Back Pain (LBP). Nevertheless, there are few studies investigating differences in LBP features between countries.ObjectiveTo determine differences in pain perception between individuals with LBP living in Brazil and Spain.MethodThirty Spanish individuals and 30 age- and sex-comparable Brazilian individuals with LBP were recruited from the Public Health Services of both countries. The Numerical Pain Rating Scale and the pain rating index (PRI), the number of words chosen (NWC), and the present pain index (PPI) extracted from the McGill Pain Questionnaire were used to assess pain. The Oswestry Disability Index, the Short Form-36, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were also applied. Differences between countries and the correlation between demographic and clinical variables in each country were assessed with parametric and the nonparametric tests.ResultsA significant Country by Gender interaction was found for the PRI total score (P=0.038), but not for intensity of pain, disability, PPI, or NWC, in which Spanish women exhibited greater pain ratio than Spanish men (P=0.014), and no gender differences were identified in Brazilians. The Spanish group showed a consistent pattern of correlations for clinical data. Within Brazilian patients, fewer correlations were found and all of the coefficients were lower than those in the Spanish group.ConclusionThe pain perception in patients with LBP is different depending on the country. Within Spanish patients, LBP is considered a more global entity affecting multidimensional contexts.

The thermal ecology of ectotherms has been studied for almost 2 centuries, but additional attention is currently being paid to it, to understand how organisms deal with the environment in a climate change context. A consensus is still far away due to the large number of factors involved and their complex interactions. In this context, 3 analyses in lacertid lizards were carried out: (i) a meta-analysis, to test for differences between body and air temperatures from 71 populations; (ii) a meta-analysis concerning correlations between body and air temperatures from 60 populations; and (iii) a multimodel inference of thermoregulation effectiveness indices from 45 populations. The importance of different factors, including body size, habitat, insularity, altitude, climate and season, was evaluated in all analyses to model the response variables. A strong seasonality effect was observed, with a consistent pattern of less effective thermoregulation in summer compared to other seasons. Altitude was the second most important factor, with a consistent higher thermoregulation effort in populations occurring at high elevations (>1000 m above sea level). Other factors, such as insularity or body size, can also be important, but did not exhibit a clear pattern. Finally, thermoregulation was less affected by climate and habitat type.

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